* Market Watch…
The number of new applications for U.S. unemployment benefits rose to a one-month high of 770,000 in mid-March, reflecting some of the damage caused to the Texas economy by a winter freeze.
Initial jobless claims filed traditionally through the states increased by 45,000 to 770,000 in the week ended March 13, the government said Thursday.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal had forecast new claims would fall to a seasonally adjusted 700,000.
Another 282,394 applications for benefits were filed through a temporary federal-relief program. These numbers are unadjusted.
Combined state and federal jobless claims totaled 1.02 million last week. They’ve yet to fall below 1 million since the onset of the pandemic last year, underscoring the massive damage to the U.S. economy caused by the coronavirus.
* Duncan Black…
That makes 52 consecutive weeks of claims above the one week peak of The Great Recession.
* CBS 2…
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 74,630 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of March 8 in Illinois, according to the DOL’s weekly claims report released Thursday. […]
Illinois’ estimated claims make up nearly 10% of the estimated 770,000 filed across the country last week.
Despite a decline in COVID cases and reopening efforts, the latest unemployment numbers show the devastating effects of the pandemic on Illinois’ economy aren’t over.
- PublicServant - Thursday, Mar 18, 21 @ 11:33 am:
The Covid Relief bill will be much needed help here. And this is relief much needed by the American people, as these figures show.
- Anon - Thursday, Mar 18, 21 @ 11:50 am:
Since the numbers are newly filed, I presume it include fraudulent claims. I worry that the fraud claims are actually increasing. Do we know if the percentage of claims that turn out to be fraudulent is decreasing (or increasing)?
- Responsa - Thursday, Mar 18, 21 @ 12:05 pm:
== Do we know if the percentage of claims that turn out to be fraudulent is decreasing (or increasing)?==
That’s such a good question. There seems to be a dearth of any information available publicly on a month by month basis as to the percentage of unemployment claims being filed which are ultimately deemed to be fraudulent submissions–either because IDES “catches” them, or because they are reported to IDES by people who have NOT filed for unemployment but have received letters and debit cards in the mail.
- Bothanspied - Thursday, Mar 18, 21 @ 12:15 pm:
If you want to get a sense of the fraudulent and rejected claims, you can start by looking at the revised estimates that get posted some days/weeks after the real-time numbers. That difference will include fraud but also people rejected for various reasons.
- High Socks - Thursday, Mar 18, 21 @ 12:36 pm:
I can’t help but wonder how much these numbers may be skewed by fraud. I have 14 employees, 11 of them have “filed” and still work here.